Tracks:

1. After Love -First Boyfriend- feat. KANAME (CHEMISTRY)

2. Girlfriend feat. BoA

3. Deaeta Kiseki

4. After Love -First Boyfriend- feat. KANAME (CHEMISTRY) inst

5. Girlfriend feat. BoA inst

After Love -First Boyfriend- feat. KANAME (CHEMISTRY) / Girlfriend feat. BoA is Crystal Kay’s 25th single and it was released on August 12th, 2009. This single reached #31 on the Oricon Weekly Charts, selling 2,298 copies. Girlfriend feat. BoA was used as the theme song for the movie Sonna Kare nara Sutechaeba?.

CK kicks off her 10 year anniversary with a double A-side. First up is After Love -First Boyfriend- featuring KANAME from the R&B duo CHEMISTRY. This is your typical R&B love song, with chimes, a clapping beat, and a few piano chords. At first it’s just alright, but the when the chorus arrive, things pick up and become a lot better. Some strings and more beats bring up the chorus and it’s great how it just builds up. KANAME has only a minor part, and that’s during the chorus where his voice mixes with Kay’s. I would’ve liked more from him, since he has a nice voice. While this song was great and all, I just felt like it needed more.

A-side #2 is Girlfriend featuring BoA. THIS is how a collaboration should sound like! Both Kay and BoA get about equal parts this time. This song has that western feeling to it, but I loved every second of it. The blaring synth and the loud beats were great and the girls sounded like they had a lot of fun with it.

Deaeta Kiseki is completely different from the A-sides. This is a mostly acoustic track, but it still has a synthetic beat. It was weird to hear CK doing an acoustic track since she doesn’t have many where it’s just acoustic guitar and piano (can’t forget that thumping beat too!) This song also felt like it needed more, but it was an alright B-side, to say the least.

Overall Grade: